Fitbit Force puts a watch face on your fitness tracking smartwatch

An improvement over the Fitbit Flex

The Fitbit Flex wristband was a couple of pedometer steps ahead of the very losable Fitbit One, and now Fitbit Force looks to pick up the pace with even better smartwatch features.

Chief among the fitness and sleep-tracking improvements is the digital watch face that appears in new promotional images obtained by The Verge. There's also a convenient physical button on the side.

The Fitbit Force appears to let users check their activity numbers throughout the day without having to sync the wristband in order to see the hard data.

It's also water resistant and adds the current time, which officially makes this wristband a smartwatch and therefore more essential for daily use.

So far, the colors are limited to black and what the report called "blue-ish slate." The sizes measure up to be small and large.

How it's better than the Fitbit Flex

Fitbit Force looks a lot like the Flex wristband, but it includes several of the features omitted from the company's earlier clip-on Fitbit One.

The Fitbit Flex, launched earlier this year, only contained five LED dots that confusingly signified how a user was stacking up to their goal.

It also axed the built-in altimeter feature that tracked the wearer's altitude. That meant Fitbit Flex users were unable to utilize the fun-to-track "Floors" statistic that made the One a lot more interesting.

With the altimeter and a number-filled LED screen set to return in the Fitbit Force, it may end up being more expensive.

The new smartwatch is said to cost $129.95 (about £80, AU$139), which is $30 (about £18.50, AU$32) more than the Flex, according to unverified sources who contacted The Verge.

That seems reasonable though given the fact that Fitbit Force combines the best of Flex and One into a single smartwatch. Well, reasonable unless you just bought Fitbit Flex five months ago.